Shippensburg University Athletics

Shippensburg has had 12 players signed by Major League Baseball teams over the past 12 seasons. There have been a total of at least 35 known Red Raiders that have once been a part of a pro organization. The following player(s) are active in the pros:

Matt Wright is fresh off a 2011 season in which he appeared in 50 games for the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League. Wright posted a 4-2 record through 77 innings of work, striking out 88 batters. He walked just 18 hitters and held opponents to a .234 batting average against.

Wright started his tenure in professional baseball with the short-season Auburn Doubledays. In 2008, his debut season, Wright struck out 54 batters in 50.1 innings, posted a 3.58 earned-run average and walked 22 batters.


Wright posted zeroes in 11 straight innings to start the 2009 season and dazzled in his first full year as a minor-league baseball player, striking out 73 batters in 59.2 innings of work. He appeared in 16 games, made 12 starts, posted a 3.77 earned-run average and yielded just two home runs during the season.

At Shippensburg, Wright became the first pitcher to win a College World Series game for the Raiders after a 166-pitch five-hitter against No. 14 Franklin Pierce in which he struck out 15 batters for the second time in his career. His 2008 season led to a Third Team All-American award after striking out 151 batters, both school and PSAC single-season records, while posting a 2.39 ERA.

Wright, the PSAC’s all-time leader with 333 career strikeouts, was drafted after his junior year but returned to campus during the offseason to complete his studies. He graduated in December 2010 with a degree in geo-environmental studies.


Evan Englebrook ‘04 signed with the Toronto Blue Jays organization during the 2012 season and was assigned to AA, where he became teammates with former Raider southpaw Matt Wright. On June 24, Englebrook was optioned to Dunedin in the Class A Florida State League.

Englebrook spent the 2011 offseason in Venezuela for winter ball, where he appeared in nine games with a 1-0 record and eight strikeouts in 11.1 innings of work. In 2010, Englebrook rotated between Double-A and Triple-A for the second straight year with the Houston Astros organization, making 42 appearances and posting a 4.50 earned-run average (ERA) in 56 innings of work.

He also had a two-month stint in the Arizona Fall League. In 11 games with the league champion Peoria Saguaros he did not allow a run in eight of those outings. Englebrook had 12 strikeouts in 12.2 innings of work. In 2009, Englebrook threw a total of 36 innings through 30 games with a 4.25 earned-run average (ERA). He began the 2009 season with the Round Rock Express (AAA), appearing in nine games and totaling 10.1 innings while striking out eight batters.

Englebrook, a native of Mechanicsburg, was tall and mean to opposing batters at Shippensburg - using his sizable 6-8 frame to intimidate even the best of hitters. His final two seasons at Shippensburg were stellar, with his senior year resulting in him becoming the only Red Raider to become an ABCA First Team All-American since 1991.

In 2004, Englebrook went 11-1, setting a school record for wins in a year, while posting a 1.78 ERA. He struck out 113 batters in 86 innings while throwing six complete games and yielding just 14 extra-base hits. Overall, Englebrook struck out 236 batters in 236 innings while posting a 22-7 career record.


Eric Herman spent three seasons with the Raider baseball team (2010-12) and along the way earned a Rawlings/ABCA Division II Gold Glove award for his play as a junior during the 2011 season.

In 2011, Herman started all 51 games – appearing 44 times in the outfield, 13 times at second base and once at shortstop. No matter where Herman played he was perfect with the glove – making several sensational catches in right field and recording two outfield assists during the season. Herman did not commit an error in 83 outfield chances or 48 infield chances to set the school record for the most defensive chances in a season without committing an error (131).

Herman is the first SU outfielder to field at least 80 defensive chances and not commit an error since Chad Stecker in 2004 (95 chances, 2 outfield assists). He is also one of three known players in school history to tally at least 100 total chances in a single season without committing an error, joining first baseman/pitcher Jimmy Miller (109 chances, 2010) and catcher Tim Kotula (109 chances, 1983).

For his career, Herman was a .287 hitter through 463 at-bats - scoring 97 runs, stealing 29 bases, ripping 23 extra-base hits and compiling a career on-base percentage of .375.